Conversation! Supple sentences, with first and second meanings and overtones beyond, outrageous challenges with cleverly planned slip-points, rebuttals of elegant brevity; deceptions and guiles, patient explanations of the obvious, fleeting allusions to the unthinkable. As a preliminary, the conversationalist must gauge the mood, the intelligence and the verbal facility of the company. To this end, a few words of pedantic exposition often prove invaluable.

The void is a mouth crying to be filled, a blank mind aching for thought, a cavity desperate for shape. What is not implies what is.

I categorically declare first my absolute innocence, second my lack of criminal intent, and third my effusive apologies.

I haven't sold to the movies. In other words, I haven't gotten any enormous checks yet.

But Roy Rockwood, it was science fiction for the sake of science fiction.

If there were no such creatures as minstrel-maidens, it would be necessary to invent them.

I never worked in an office in my life.